Archive for January 2020
Unfortunately, Bernie is NOT a communist
People say, “Omg! Bernie is a COMMUNIST!”
I would be very happy if that were true. As I pointed out back in 2015, Russian communists were actually a lot more conservative than modern-day liberals:
Even though Russia was controlled by communists for more than 70 years, and non-communist-approved media was banned, Russians today are much more conservative on issues like gender roles, race, the environment, and the willingness to use military force to achieve national objectives, than Western liberals.
We could sure use one of those old-school Russian communists for President.
Looking back: Lion was right about impeachment
Some commenters say something like “no way will Democrats really impeach him.”
To that, I say, “yes, way.” If Republicans could impeach Clinton for lying under oath about whom he had sex with, then Democrats can impeach Trump because they HATE, HATE, HATE him, and to get revenge against Republicans for impeaching Bill Clinton, even though under the current mode of #metoo thinking, Clinton was an evil misogynist rapist.
For example, the commenter who calls himself “Ok, what, who’s this again?” wrote back then:
Yes, there is no impeachment. Just as the release of Trump’s tax returns will be never ever.
Like the Mueller testimony, it’s all theatrics!
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Will Bernie have a huge blowout victory in Iowa?
This “Upshot” article from earlier this week in the NY Times
This “Upshot” article from earlier this week in the NY Times explains why Bernie is going to win in Iowa. According to the NY Times poll, Biden has a hefty lead of 8 points among respondents who voted in the 2018 primary, but Bernie has an even bigger 10-point lead among respondents who attended the caucuses in 2016.
And on top of that, take note of this article from earlier this month in the LA times about Bernie’s on-the-ground operation to get his Hispanic supporters in Iowa, who never caucused before, to the caucuses.
Bernie could win Iowa not by a squeaker but by a huge blowout.
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There were two new Iowa polls yesterday:
The Monmouth poll of people who voted in a previous primary shows Biden in the lead, but the Iowa State University poll of likely caucusgoers has Sanders in the lead and Biden in fourth place.
Thus, the Iowa poll is correct and the Monmouth poll is wrong because it’s polling the wrong people.
Crazy low airfare prices to Asia
If you want to fly to anywhere in Asia, and don’t mind flying on a Chinese airline with a stop-over in a Chinese airport, you’re looking at less than $600 round trip.
Peter from Long Island writes I in a comment:
Everybody’s going mucking fental about this virus when the ordinary, garden-variety flu knocks off at least 15,000 people in the US every year.
So you recommend taking advantage of the cheap airfares?
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Way overrated movie.
It’s more movie-like and has better pacing, better spaceship sets and special effects than the first TNG movie. And I also like the new uniforms. But the plot is stupid. I say that the worst movie with the original cast is better than the best TNG movie.
I’m not a fan of adding time travel to series that aren’t specifically about time travel. So the TV series Travelers, specifically about time travel, was great, but time travel is bad when it’s in Star Trek. If the Borg can travel back in time, then why not just travel back in time in Borg space, then send a Borg cube to Earth which is back in time before they have any defenses, and they can just easily assimilate the planet, and Picard would have totally been unable to do anything about it.
The supposedly great accomplishment of man’s first warp flight becomes pretty meaningless if time travelers from the future are helping out.
This is a more minor point, but I don’t understand why Picard allowed Doctor Crusher to bring the injured black woman back to the Enterprise. It’s a mistake that Captain Kirk would have made, but Picard is supposed to be a real stickler for following the rules, even if following the rules sucks. With several people from the past knowing about the future, including Zefram Cochrane, I don’t see how the timeline hasn’t been screwed up.
Vulcans discover Cochrane’s tiny little spaceship, but are oblivious to the huge-in-comparison Enterprise from the future orbiting Earth.
Nothing in this movie makes sense if you spend more than a few seconds thinking about it.
A horny grotesque Borg “queen” who wants to have sex with Data, this is just so stupid I don’t know what more to say about it.
Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump on immigration
This is why I support Trump. We’re one Supreme Court justice away from Supreme-Court-mandated open borders. If Trump loses in November, we could lose the Supreme Court.
I’d like to say that every other country on the planet would deny permanent residency to an immigrant who would need to depend government assistance, but there could be some SJW-infested country in Europe that it allows it, so I can’t say for sure. There’s a lot of insanity in the world of SJWs.
This is not to say that we, as citizens of the United States, should not endeavor to make the world a better place, or that we should ignore suffering outside of our borders. But the world will not be a better place if hordes of immigrants overwhelm us and we become just another dysfunctional country. Instead, we should do what we can to make the countries these people are coming from better so they don’t have to leave. Plus we need to be alert for grifters and slackers who would take advantage of our soft-heartedness.
Star Trek Generations (1994)
With the new Picard series on the air, I thought I should catch up on these post-TNG movies that I missed.
While it was cool to see William Shatner play Captain Kirk one last time (when he was still young enough to do it), it was totally crappy that they just killed him off in such a dumb meaningless manner. If only they had the foresight back then to realize that they could have a TV series about Captain Kirk as an older retired man. It surely would have been way better than Voyager.
Otherwise, this feels like a regular TNG episode with slightly better-looking spaceship interiors, stretched out unnecessarily to two hours. With far too much technobabble and MacGuffins.
Other than William Shatner, the high point of the movie is Brett Spiner playing Data who had Geordi install an “emotion chip” into his brain. After some initial difficulty adjusting to the “chip,” Data starts acting like the only normal human on the ship, and the humans act like emotionless Starfleet drones.
New Iowa polls
Emerson: Bernie leads Biden by 9 points
USA Today/Suffolk: Biden leads Bernie by 6 points.
Which poll is more accurate? Both have a margin of error of more than 4 points. The USA Today poll claims to be a poll of “likely Democratic caucusgoers,” while the Emerson poll claims to be “weighted based on gender, age, education, region, and based on 2016 turnout model.”
Suffolk’s polling method has been particularly unfavorable for Sanders, having him at only 9 points in October, so the jump from 9 to 19 points is consistent with other polls showing a Bernie surge.
The prediction market at Predict.org has taken notice, and now has Bernie leading in Iowa at 62¢ compared to 27¢ for Bernie.
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It’s my feeling that what the polls aren’t capturing is that Bernie’s supporters are more motivated to go to the caucuses, while Biden’s support is shallow, few people support him enthusiastically.
Kobe Bryant
I don’t follow basketball, so I barely know who this guy is.
I’d like to say that it serves rich people right for using helicopters to get places faster, but I can’t find any evidence that helicopter travel is more dangerous than travel by car (although both car travel and helicopter travel are a lot more dangerous than travel by commercial airline).
Also, he was a rapist.
Authorities said the woman was examined at a hospital the day after the encounter and had injuries “not consistent with consensual sex.”
She also had a small bruise on her jawline and her blood was found on the T-shirt Bryant wore on the night of the incident, cops said.
So it’s not like a Christine Blasey Ford rape that no one rembembers but her.
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With more news about the foggy weather, I strongly suspect a conversation like this happened:
PILOT: Mr. Bryant, the weather is bad for flying, it would be a good idea to cancel this trip.
KOBE BRYANT: Do your jobs damnit and fly me where I want to go, or i’ll fire you and hire new pilots.
Sunday morning Dem analysis
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
Polls released today show that the Bernie surge continues.
Two NH polls have Bernie leading Biden by 9 and 5 points.
National CNN poll has Biden leading Bernie by 26 to 23. The previous CNN poll from early December had Biden leading Bernie by 30 to 20.
Finally there’s the outlier ABC/Wash Post poll which has Biden leading Bernie by 34-22. This is based on respondents who are “registered and likely to vote.” Among all poll respondents, Biden has a much narrower lead of 28 to 24. This poll could be a warning sign that Bernie isn’t doing as well as other polls might indicate, because Bernie’s strongest support comes from demographics least likely to vote: young people and Hispanics.
Lion of the Blogosphere 